Category: Talking Points Tuesdays

Surya Bonaly was not the typical “Ice Princess”, she was a Rebel On Ice that had spread and power that was unprecedented at the time in the sport of figure skating.

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Who remembers Surya Bonaly hitting her ‘Backflip’ during her performance at the 1998 Nagano Olympics???

Yoooo, that is crazy!

I recall Bonaly and thinking she’s not American but proud to see another Black figure skater after Debie Thomas. Unlike Thomas and other skaters during that time Bonaly was very athletic from a gymnastic background. She had a combination of speed and power, but she did not fit the typical mold of the “Ice Princess” skater, and it hurt her scores at times. This all came to a head in 1994 at the Ladies World Championship.

For the judges Bonaly was just a jumper and the judges from the ISU went with the Ice Princess. Bonaly in defiance, refused to stand on the podium for 2nd place and even took off the medal during the ceremony.

That moment basically set the stage for the 1998 Olympics. The odds were already against Bonaly as she was recovering from an Achilles injury going into 98 Olympics, but she wanted to leave her mark as she was closing out her ice-skating career.

In her final performance, Bonaly struggled thru her short program and a slow start to her free skate put any chance for a medal out of reach.

“That was my last Olympics, and pretty much my last competition ever,”

“I wanted to leave a trademark.”

“I wanted to do something to please the crowd, not the judges,”

“The judges are not pleased no matter what I do, and I knew I couldn’t go forward anyway, because everybody was skating so good.”

Props to Bonaly, for standing up for herself and for being a damn good figure skater that deserves more props for what she accomplished in the world of figure skating.

If you get a chance, checkout the ESPN short ‘Rebel On Ice’

As always….

If there is something to be said, “It’s On Broadway” to step up and say it!!

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the rest of the republican senate started the process of trying to repeal and replace Obamacare knowing they could only afford to lose 2 votes to pass any legislation. With Lee and Moran announcing their opposition to the BCRA the number of republicans that have publicly opposed the legislation now stands at 4, including Senators Rand Paul (Kentucky) and Susan Collins (Maine).

As much as Republicans hate the idea, they should work with Democrats on legislation that can shore up the health exchanges, lower premiums and lower deductibles within the framework of Obamacare.

Of course that’s easier said than done since republicans have built their base on a repeal and replace rhetoric that never had their constituents in mind.

Meanwhile, what’s next for the Trump White House?

Right now their only accomplishment is helping the ratings for MSNBC shows ‘Morning Joe’ and ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’

As always….

If there is something to be said, “It’s On Broadway” to step up and say it!!

For the record i am a Pro-Choice Catholic and I respect Todd Akin’s Pro-Life stance.

But this latest BS….

SMH, As much as I like politics there is no real reason why I should even know who Rep Todd Akin (R-MO)!

Unfortuantely for him not only do I now know who he is but so do many other folks who don’t really follow politics. Akin went national when a local interview went viral, in that interview Akin introduced many folks to the term “Legitimate Rape”…

“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something, I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.” – Todd Akin

Wait… WHAT????

This reckless statement took a life of its own where even hardcore Republicans had to distance themselves from Akin and his comment. While there were some Conservatives like Dana Loesch who tried to defend Akin for the most part common sense Republicans see there is no defending Akin’s mentality. Republicans like S.E. Cupp stood up to say the following:

“I don’t fault Akin for his disdain for abortion. But disdain alone cannot be the foundation of policy. And we shouldn’t empower people who prove so unarguably to be so unserious and incurious that they will say just about anything to back up their disdain.” – S.E. Cupp

I can appreciate how S.E. Cupp took the responsible approach and didn’t try to simple defend a fellow Republican. Too many times since 2008 I have seen Republicans (and Democrats) blindly support their party while throwing common sense out the window. In my opinion this type of behavior is dangerous and is the real threat to the United States.

Todd Akin’s way of thinking is out there, and he needs to take a seat. There is no way he should be given the power to cast votes in the United States Senate, no one that believes the female body can shut its reproductive system down in case of rape should be allowed to be a deciding vote on ANY issue in Congress.

It’s time to move on Akin, do what’s right for the Republican party and step down!

To be honest as a Liberal I should be rooting for Akin to stay in the race, there is more of a chance that someone else could step in and actually beat Claire McCaskill (D-MO).

As always….

If there is something to be said, “It’s On Broadway” to step up and say it!!

In 2008 candidate Barack Obama talked about re-instituting the Federal Ban on Assault Weapons; 4 years later we have a witnessed tragic shootings that have left a member of the United States House of Representatives (Gabrielle Giffords) recovering from being shot in the head and senseless murder/injury of innocent people trying to watch the latest Dark Knight movie (Dark Knight Rises). While it is true that you cannot say for sure that these shooting could have been prevented with stricter gun control laws, what can be said is that the weapons used in the attacks would have been banned (AR-15 and extended magazine clip). Of course having a ban of such weapons doesn’t guarantee no violence but it’s a start. The last thing we should want to do is make it any easier for NUTBAGS like James Holmes to be able to purchase firearms and ammunition.

And as much as I will defend President Obama on some of his policies, I CANNOT DEFEND HIM ON THIS!

The NRA and nutbags within the GOP would have you believe that President Obama wants to take away your guns. Well that is simply not true as President Obama has not done anything when it comes to gun control. What’s sad is that Obama had the perfect opportunity to take up the fight of gun control when Representative Giffords was shot in the head; she survived along while 6 others died that day including a 9-year-old girl. He had the sympathy of the nation but nothing was done….

There is no indication even if the president won re-election that he will pursue the federal assault weapons ban. Jake Tapper of ABC News reported that the White House has suggested that the president does not have the appetite to pursue stricter gun control laws.

“The president’s views on this are, as he has stated and as he spelled out in the op-ed that was published in an Arizona newspaper, which is that he believes we need to take steps that protect Second Amendment rights of the American people but that ensure that we are not allowing weapons into the hands of individuals who should not, by existing law, obtain those weapons…” – WH Press Secretary Jay Carney (reported by Jake Tapper)

Basically the president is saying, he has to SHOW that he is not planning to take people’s guns away as he can’t afford to lose any possible votes to Mitt Romney.

Sorry Barack, but if you have no appetite now when will you have one?

Hopefully we will not see another tragedy like Aurora, but then again didn’t we say that after the shooting in Arizona????

In case you forgot below here are some of the regulations included in the Federal Assault Weapons Ban:

Assault weapon (semi-automatic) refers primarily (but not exclusively) to firearms that possess the cosmetics of an assault rifle (which are fully-automatic). Semi-automatic firearms, when fired, automatically extract the spent cartridge casing and load the next cartridge into the chamber, ready to fire again; they do not fire automatically like a machine gun, rather, only 1 round is fired with each trigger pull.

In the former U.S. law, the legal term assault weapon included certain specific semi-automatic firearm models by name (e.g., Colt AR-15, TEC-9, non select-fire AK-47s produced by three manufacturers, and Uzis) and other semi-automatic firearms because they possess a minimum set of cosmetic features from the following list of features:

Semi-automatic rifles able to accept detachable magazines and two or more of the following:

Grenade launcher (more precisely, a muzzle device which enables the launching or firing of rifle grenades, though this applies only to muzzle mounted grenade launchers and not those which are mounted externally)

Semi-automatic pistols with detachable magazines and two or more of the following:

The earlier term assault rifle refers to rifles that are capable of fully automatic fire. By that definition the ban did not cover “assault rifles” at all. Instead, it created a new definition of “assault weapon,” a term that was broad enough to encompass all three categories of firearm (rifle, pistol and shotgun) capable of semi-automatic fire and having a combination of features as listed above, but did not include fully automatic firearms of any type.

As always….

If there is something to be said, “It’s On Broadway” to step up and say it!!

So Romney surrogate John H Sununu decided he would give President Barack Obama a little advice today,

“Learn how to be an American…”

Of course Sununu tried to cleanup his remark about the President later on in the day,

“What I thought I said, but I guess I didn’t say, is that the President has to learn the American formula for creating business. “If I didn’t give all that detail I apologize.”

Ok Mr Sununu, “If I didn’t give all that detail I apologize…”? Ummm, Sununu made the comments but he doesn’t recall if he gave details. That’s hilarious, but it is also typical of Republicans when it comes to Barack Obama. From Glenn Beck to Donald Trump, Sununu has joined the exclusive club of NUTBAGS!!!

The funny thing is, you could say President Obama is more American than the man saying he needs to “Learn how to be an American”.

Fun Fact For Ya…. John H Sununu was born in Havana, Cuba! Would it be wrong for the Obama Campaign to say Sununu is secretly a Communist since he was born in Cuba?

As always….

If there is something to be said, “It’s On Broadway” to step up and say it!!

“President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob. There are good decent men and women who go out and work hard every day and put their skills to test that aren’t taught by some liberal college professor to try to indoctrinate them. Oh, I understand why he wants you to go to college. He wants to remake you in his image.” – Rick Santorum

Seriously, what is Santorum talking about? Is he so desperate to find something to stick to Pres Obama and to gain ground in the polls that he would really try to portray the president as a “Snob”? Unfortunately the answer is yes!

Santorum who is a graduate of Penn State and has a Masters in Business Administration and a Law Degree from Dickson School of Law, looks like a disconnected fool! Study after study have shown that in this economy it is becoming nearly impossible to find a decent job without higher education; I guess Santorum missed that economic data. Also Santorum either completely missed the point of Pres Obama when he said he wants to make college affordable for every American…. Or Rick decided to ignore what the president was saying in order to create some kind of fear with the middle class.

I tend to believe that Rick Santorum is all about the latter!

This is the Republican party, the party that will find a way to simply disagree with ANYTHING President Obama supports; even if it means making a fool out of themselves.

In 2006 Rick Santorum boasted about his support for higher education on his campaign website during his 2006 Senate campaign:

You know something is not right when there is controversy around Valentine’s Day??? I thought we hit the peak with the whole Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays nonsense, but apparently I was wrong.

I was talking to one of my colleagues in Houston and they mentioned how their son’s school (son is in the 1st grade) doesn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day….

Wait… What Happened???

I never even heard of such a thing before, what’s wrong with Valentine’s Day?

According to my co-worker his son’s school doesn’t celebrate V-Day because they don’t want to focus on love as they feel it should be more of a focus on friendship. So the school celebrates Friendship Day.

WTH….

Man… listen, this is Valentine’s Day and I don’t care how old you are. This is the day you give your lil crush a cut out heart you made out of red construction paper. What the hell do you give someone for Friendship Day?

Seriously, why would we as a society be scared to allow our young children to know that there is a difference between a friend and someone you may like more than just as a friend? Are we fearful of the influences of this sexually charged world we live in? If that’s the case it’s too late, the cat is out the bag. As a society I believe we complicate things…

1st kids sports started the policy of every child getting a trophy, because EVERYONE IS A WINNER!!

Nooooo, some times there are winners and loser. The sooner you learn that the better off you will be, a little healthy competition in life is good for you. It build character, occasionally there will be poor sportsmanship but that is LIFE!!!! Stop sugar-coating it, in real life people lose.

Then there was the ban of sports like dodge ball in school, smh. I don’t know about y’all but dodge ball taught me that in life there are surprises, and if you don’t keep your head on a swivel you can get smacked right in the back of head. Man… dodge ball was fun as hell!!

I miss the good old days….

Let’s just relax and leave Valentine’s Day alone, besides you get rid of V-Day and your killing a big pay-day for the retail industry. The National Retail Federation said the average person will spend $126.03 on gifts, up 8.5 percent from last year’s $116.21. Total sales nationwide is expected to reach something like $18 billion…

GTFOH!

As always….

If there is something to be said, “It’s On Broadway” to step up and say it!!